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Article
Publication date: 9 May 2022

Yanjun Zhang, Shuangfeng Wang and Zhuming Liu

The purpose of this study is to conduct research on a new kind of division microchannel heat sink (D-MCHS), which can distribute cooling water along the channel-length direction…

204

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to conduct research on a new kind of division microchannel heat sink (D-MCHS), which can distribute cooling water along the channel-length direction. First, the pressure drops in the D-MCHS with different division region numbers were compared. Then, the cooling performance of the D-MCHS with different division region numbers was also comparatively investigated. Finally, the temperature distribution on the bottom surface of the D-MCHS was analyzed.

Design/methodology/approach

First, experiments were conducted to investigate the numerical calculation method. Then, a three-dimensional steady, single-phase, laminar flow and solid-fluid conjugate heat transfer numerical model was used to research the flow and heat transfer characteristics in microchannels.

Findings

The pressure drop in the D-MCHS could be reduced by increasing the number of divided flow regions along the channel-length direction. The bottom average temperature of the D-MCHS could be simultaneously affected by the number of divided flow regions and the water flow rate. The thermal uniformity performance of the D-MCHS could be improved by increasing the number of division flow regions. The number of low-temperature and high-temperature areas on the bottom surface of the D-MCHS is corresponding to the division flow region number.

Originality/value

The D-MCHS exhibited a positive effect on the pressure drop decrease and thermal uniformity improvement. It not only keeps the electronic module working in a secure temperature environment but also consumes less pump power for a lower pressure drop.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

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Article
Publication date: 26 August 2022

TamilSalvi Mari, Jin Liew and Veronica Ng

The study aims to explore factors affecting stilt construction and the possibilities of using innovative materials and construction methods to re-establish the traditional stilt…

379

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to explore factors affecting stilt construction and the possibilities of using innovative materials and construction methods to re-establish the traditional stilt structures.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a qualitative research method using an in-depth interview with selected architects to document experience and insights of the architects on the challenges and possibilities of using innovative materials and construction methods to re-establish the traditional stilt structures. Purposive sampling was used to determine the respondents for the study. Architects with experience designing stilt houses in architects' architectural practice were selected to take in the study.

Findings

Study revealed that generally architects are keen on using stilt structures. Building materials and costs associated with designing and constructing stilt structures were identified as the key challenges. However, architects suggest using recycled building materials as possible solutions to encourage the construction of stilt structures in Malaysia. The architects also preferred to use hybridized recycled materials for stilt structures as hybridized materials have improved structural properties and functions. Additionally, the study identified “psychological hesitation” or “accessibility” as a factor affecting the construction of stilt buildings.

Research limitations/implications

Throughout this study, some limitations have been dealt with. The first is the limitation of sample size. Contemporary stilt architecture is not very common in Malaysia today, and not many architects have experience in designing stilt houses. Although the method of purposive sampling was used, a larger sample size could have generated a more diverse result. The second limitation is the dearth of research on contemporary stilt houses in Malaysia. As stilt construction is uncommon in Malaysia and the existing material focuses primarily on traditional Malay houses, this has been one of the major challenges. Finally, most of the literature on stilt construction is from Southeast Asia, limited or insufficient studies and literature on local stilt construction would have a greater benefit to the study.

Practical implications

The outcomes from this study would benefit the scholars who have an interest in exploring stilts construction in contemporary architecture as well as innovative construction materials and construction methods. As the study brings forth the challenges and possibilities of restoring the traditional stilt constructions, the study can be used as a reference by designers to garner a deeper understanding of the traditional stilt construction and encourage designers to focus on possible innovations for stilt construction from the aspects of materials and methods in ensuring the traditional element is present in future design and construction.

Originality/value

The study is a response to an obvious dearth body of knowledge in stilt construction in the Malaysian context. The study identifies the key challenges and possible and practical solutions. The findings of this study represent a scholastic effort that can be used as a reference by academics and scholars.

Details

Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-6862

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Article
Publication date: 16 October 2018

Zhipeng Wang, Zhiqin Qian, Ziye Song, Hongzhou Liu, Wenjun Zhang and Zhuming Bi

Even though multi-rotor aircrafts are becoming more and more prevalent in the fields of aerial photography, agricultural spraying, disaster searching and rescuing, how to achieve…

110

Abstract

Purpose

Even though multi-rotor aircrafts are becoming more and more prevalent in the fields of aerial photography, agricultural spraying, disaster searching and rescuing, how to achieve higher reliability and robustness of an aircraft still poses a big challenge. It is not a rare case that a multi-rotor aircraft is severely damaged or crushed when an actuator or sensor is malfunctioned. This paper aims at the resilience of an aircraft when a rotor is malfunctioned.

Design/methodology/approach

The reliability of a multi-rotor aircraft can be measured in terms of stability, robustness, resilience and fault tolerance. All of these four aspects are taken into consideration to improve overall reliability of aircrafts. When a rotor malfunction occurs, the control algorithm is cable of adjusting the operation conditions of the rest of rotors to achieve system stability.

Findings

In this paper, the authors first present a research topic on the development of a resilient multi-robot aircraft. A multi-rotor aircraft usually possesses more actuated motions than the required degrees of freedom.

Originality/value

The authors proposed to equip the multi-rotor aircraft with malfunction detecting sensors, and they developed the self-repairing algorithm to re-stabilize the aircraft when a malfunction of a rotor occurs. The design concept and methods were implemented on an eight-rotor aircraft, and the performance of the proposed instrumentation and self-repairing algorithm have been verified and validated.

Details

Industrial Robot: An International Journal, vol. 45 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-991X

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Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Zhuming Bi, Guoping Wang, Li Da Xu, Matt Thompson, Raihan Mir, Jeremy Nyikos, Armela Mane, Colton Witte and Cliff Sidwell

The purpose of this paper is to develop an information system which is based on the Internet of things (IoT) and used to support the communication and coordination in a…

938

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an information system which is based on the Internet of things (IoT) and used to support the communication and coordination in a cooperative robot team.

Design/methodology/approach

The architecture of the IoT applications for decision-making activities in a complex system is elaborated, the focus lies on the effective implementation of system interactions at the device-level. A case study is provided to verify system performances.

Findings

The IoT concept has been introduced in an information system of a football robot team to support the coordination among team players. Various sensors are used to collect data from IoT, and data are processed for the controls of robotic players to achieve the better performance at the system level. The field test has shown the feasibility and effectiveness.

Research limitations/implications

To investigate how IoT can be utilized in an information system for making complex decisions effectively, the authors use the decision-support system for a football robot team to illustrate the approaches in developing data acquisition infrastructure, processing and utilizing real-time data for the communication and coordination of robot players in a dynamic competing environment. While the presented work has shown the feasibility of an IoT-based information system, more work are needed to integrate advanced sensors within the IoT and develop more intelligent algorithms to replace manually remote control for the operations of robot players.

Practical implications

The proposed system is specifically for a football robot team; however, the associated approaches are applicable to any decentralized system for developing an information system to support IoT-based communication and coordination within the system in the real-time mode.

Originality/value

The exploration of IoT applications is still at its early stage, existing relevant work is mostly limited to the development of system architecture, sensor networks, and communication protocols. In this paper, the methods on how to use massive real-time data for decision-making of a decentralized team have been investigated, and the proposed system has its theoretical significance to developing other decentralized wireless sensor networks and decision-making systems.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

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Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Zhuming Bi, Guoping Wang and Li Da Xu

– The purpose of this paper is to present a visualization platform to control and monitor wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in manufacturing applications.

2120

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a visualization platform to control and monitor wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in manufacturing applications.

Design/methodology/approach

To make the platform flexible and versatile, a modular framework is adopted in modeling and visualizing WSNs. The Eclipse programming environment is used to maximize the scalability and adaptability of the platform. A set of the core functional modules have been designed and implemented to support the system operation. The platform is validated through a case study simulation.

Findings

The platform is capable of accommodating different operating systems such as Windows and Linux. It allows integrating new plug-ins developed in various languages such as Java, C, C++, and Matlab. The Graphic User Interface has been applied to process and visualize the acquired real-time data from a WSN, and the embodied methodologies can be used to predict the behaviors of objects in the network.

Research limitations/implications

The work has shown the feasibility and potential of the proposed platform in improving the real-time performance of WSN. However, the number of the developed functional modules is limited, and additional effort is required to develop sophisticated functional modules or sub-systems for a customized application.

Practical implications

The platform can be applied to monitor and visualize various WSN applications in manufacturing environments such as automated workcells, transportation systems, logistic, and storage systems.

Originality/value

The work is motivated by the scarce research on the development tools for monitoring and visualization of WSNs in manufacturing applications. The proposed platform serves for both of system developers and users. It is modularized with a set of core functional modules; it can be extended to accommodate new functional modules with a minimal effort for a different application.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

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Article
Publication date: 30 July 2019

Shi Yin and Ming Zhu

This paper aims to quantify the dependence relationship of bat algorithm’s (BA) behaviour on the factors that could possibly affect the outputs, and rank the importance of the…

85

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to quantify the dependence relationship of bat algorithm’s (BA) behaviour on the factors that could possibly affect the outputs, and rank the importance of the various uncertain factors thus suggesting research priorities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a sensitivity analysis based on variance decomposition of factors in both of original and improved BA. The data sets for sensitivity analysis are generated by optimal Latin hyper sampling in the design of experiment. The optimal factor sets are screened by stochastic error bar measures for the effective and robust implementation of BA.

Findings

The paper reveals the inner dependent relationship between factors and output in both of original and improved BA. It figures out the weakness in original BA and improves that. It suggests that uncertainty brought about by factors are mainly caused by the interaction effect and all the higher-order term in sensitivity indices for both of original and improved BA. It ranks the main effect and the total effect of factors and screens out some optimal factor sets for BA.

Originality/value

This paper quantifies the dependence relationship of BA’s behaviour on the factors that could affect outputs using sensitivity analysis based on variance decomposition.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 36 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

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Article
Publication date: 24 February 2021

Deepankar Sinha and Shuvo Roy Chowdhury

Cross border trade, involving different business environments between the sellers’ and buyers’ countries, may result in conflicts because of asymmetry in the information structure…

1547

Abstract

Purpose

Cross border trade, involving different business environments between the sellers’ and buyers’ countries, may result in conflicts because of asymmetry in the information structure across the borders. The International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) has laid down ground rules on terms of shipment and payment, enabling harmonization and standardization of business process, and fixing of responsibilities for international trade. The international commercial (INCO) terms by ICC define the duties, obligations and cost borne by the exporter and the importer. An exporter’s uncertainty looms once the goods cross his/her border. Therefore, there is a need for a smart contract that is secured, transparent, legitimate and trustworthy. The authors propose a blockchain technology-based smart global contract (BTGC) framework for international trade.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors develop the framework based on value chain analysis (VCA) of international trade and an ontology-driven-blockchain-design approach. The paper analyzes the sequence of activities in the value chain of global trade, the terms of the contract, the data structure templates, the validation rules and the points-of-failure, and proposes the smart contract blockchain structure.

Findings

This paper proposes the BTGC framework considering the INCO terms 2020; it provides the validation rules and the probability of failures; and identifies the elements that cause the halting of contracts and conditions of creation of side blockchains. The framework also includes the governance of the BTGC system.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed framework not only has implications at the firm level as it automates and secures a global sale contract but also is expected to harmonize the global-trade process as well. The developers may use the attributes, data structure templates and the rules identified in this paper for developing the GC software. Future research may consider using case analysis, class diagrams and the related steps for developing the blockchain software.

Originality/value

This paper proposes a complete value chain of global contract (GC) concerning exports, an ontology of GC and a blockchain-based smart-contract framework based on global standards. Besides, it specifies the elements of fraud (such as the non-integration of side chains) and uncertainty, i.e. the probability of failures. Such a framework will harmonize the global-trade process and build an international standards for smart GC based on blockchain technology (ISSGCBT), which is not yet done.

Details

Journal of Global Operations and Strategic Sourcing, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5364

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